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Ribaldry orblue comedy is humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering onindelicacy toindecency.[1] Blue comedy is also referred to as "bawdiness" or being "bawdy". Like any humour, ribaldry may be read as conventional orsubversive. Ribaldry typically depends on a shared background of sexual conventions and values, and itscomedy generally depends on seeing those conventions broken.
The ritualtaboo-breaking that is a usual counterpart of ribaldry underlies its controversial nature and explains why ribaldry is sometimes a subject ofcensorship. Ribaldry, whose usual aim isnot "merely" to be sexually stimulating, often does address larger concerns than mere sexual appetite. However, being presented in the form of comedy, these larger concerns may be overlooked by censors.
Sex is presented in ribald material more for the purpose of poking fun at the foibles and weaknesses that manifest themselves inhuman sexuality, rather than to present sexual stimulation either overtly or artistically. Also, ribaldry may use sex as ametaphor to illustrate some non-sexual concern, in which case ribaldry borderssatire.
Ribaldry differs fromblack comedy in that the latter deals with topics that would normally be consideredpainful orfrightening, whereas ribaldry deals with topics that would only be considered offensive.
Ribaldry is present to some degree in every culture and has likely been around for all of human history. Works likeLysistrata byAristophanes,Menaechmi byPlautus,Cena Trimalchionis byPetronius, andThe Golden Ass ofApuleius are ribald classics fromancient Greece and Rome.Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale" from hisCanterbury Tales andThe Crabfish, one of the oldest English traditional ballads, are classic examples. The FrenchmanFrançois Rabelais showed himself to be a master of ribaldry (technically calledgrotesque body) in hisGargantua and other works.The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman byLaurence Sterne andThe Lady's Dressing Room byJonathan Swift are also in this genre; as isMark Twain's long-suppressed1601.
Another example of ribaldry is "De Brevitate Vitae", a song which in manyEuropean-influenced universities is both a student beer-drinking song and an anthem sung by official universitychoirs at public graduation ceremonies. The private and public versions of the song contain vastly different words. More recent works likeCandy,Barbarella,L'Infermiera, the comedic works ofRuss Meyer,Little Annie Fanny andJohn Barth'sThe Sot-Weed Factor are probably better classified as ribaldry than as either pornography or erotica.[citation needed]
A bawdy song is a humorous song that emphasises sexual themes and is often rich withinnuendo. Historically these songs tend to be confined to groups of young males, either as students or in an environment where alcohol is flowing freely. An early collection wasWit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, edited by Thomas D'Urfey and published between 1698 and 1720. Selected songs fromWit and Mirth have been recorded by theCity Waites and other singers. Sailor's songs tend to be quite frank about the exploitative nature of the relationship between men and women. There are many examples of folk songs in which a man encounters a woman in the countryside. This is followed by a short conversation, and then sexual intercourse, e.g. "The Game of All Fours". Neither side demonstrates any shame or regret. If the woman becomes pregnant, the man will not be there anyway.Rugby songs are often bawdy. Examples of bawdy folk songs are: "Seventeen Come Sunday" and "The Ballad of Eskimo Nell".Robert Burns compiledThe Merry Muses of Caledonia (the title is not Burns's), a collection of bawdy lyrics that were popular in the music halls of Scotland as late as the 20th century. In modern timesHash House Harriers have taken on the role of tradition-bearers for this kind of song.The Unexpurgated Folk Songs of Men (Arhoolie 4006) is a gramophone record containing a collection of American bawdy songs recorded in 1959.[2]
Blue comedy is comedy that isoff-colour,risqué,indecent, orprofane, largely about sex. It often containsprofanity or sexual imagery that may shock and offend some audience members.[citation needed]
"Working blue" refers to the act of using swear words and discussing things that people would not discuss in "polite society". A "blue comedian" or "blue comic" is acomedian who usually performs risqué routines layered with curse words.
There is a common belief that comedianMax Miller (1894–1963) coined the phrase, after his stage act which involved telling jokes from either a white book or a blue book, chosen by audience preference (the blue book contained ribald jokes). This is not so, as theOxford English Dictionary contains earlier references to the use of blue to mean ribald: 1890Sporting Times 25 Jan. 1/1 "Shifter wondered whether the damsel knew any novel blue stories." and 1900Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Oct. 12/4 "Let someone propose to celebrateChaucer by publicly reading some of his bluest productions unexpurgated. The reader would probably be locked up."
Private events at show business clubs such as theMasquers often showed this blue side of otherwise clean-cut comedians; a recording survives of one Masquers roast from the 1950s withJack Benny,George Jessel,George Burns, andArt Linkletter all using highly risqué material and obscenities. Many comedians who are normally family-friendly might choose to work blue when off-camera or in an adult-oriented environment;Bob Saget exemplified thisdichotomy.Bill Cosby's 1969 record album8:15 12:15 records both his family-friendly evening standup comedy show, and his blue midnight show, which included a joke about impregnating his wife "right through the old midnight trampoline" (herdiaphragm) and other sexual references.[3]
Some comedians build their careers on blue comedy. Among the best known of these areRedd Foxx,Lawanda Page, and the team of Leroy and Skillet, all of whom later performed on the family-friendly television showSanford and Son. Page, Leroy, and Skillet specialised in a particularAfrican American form of blue spoken word recitation calledsignifying or toasting.Dave Attell has also been described by his peers as one of the greatest modern-day blue comics.[4]
Ontalk radio in the United States and elsewhere, blue comedy is a staple of theshock jock's repertoire. The use of blue comedy over American radio airwaves is severely restricted due to decency regulations; theFederal Communications Commission can levy fines against radio stations that air obscene content.
As a part of English literature, blue literature dates back to at leastMiddle English, while bawdy humor is a central element in works of such writers asShakespeare andChaucer. Examples of blue literature are also present in various cultures, among different social classes, and genders.[5] Until the 1940s, writers of English-language blue literature were almost exclusively men; since then, it has become possible for women to build a commercial career on blue literature.[5]: 170 While no extensive cross-cultural study has been made in an attempt to prove the universality of blue literature, oral tradition around the world suggests that this may be the case.[5]: 169
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